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Old South Gaylord Street has been sporting two Devil’s Food signs over the past few weeks: one at 1020 South Gaylord and a newer sign four doors up at 1004 South Gaylord. So what’s the deal? Is the bakery, restaurant and coffeehouse moving? As it turns out, the business is splitting into a separate bakery and restaurant. Devil’s Food Cookery will stay in the original spot where it’s been since 1999, and Devil’s Food Bakery will soon open to fill the neighborhood’s pastry and coffee needs.
The Washington Park favorite originally opened as a bakery and added supper (as the restaurant calls it, not dinner) service a few years later. But as the place grew in popularity for its full menus, which also include brunch served daily from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., customers looking to hang out for coffee and pastries began to feel squeezed out, with only two cafe tables to serve their needs.
With the expansion, those customers will have a whole new space to while away the morning; the new shop will house Devil’s Food’s bakery and cafe. while the older space will become strictly a restaurant, with the current pastry and coffee counter converted into a beer, wine and cocktail bar, according to director of operations Jaryn Oakley.
Oakley adds that owner Angela Pilloud has been touring the country collecting design elements for the new bakery space, including antique tin-ceiling tiles and 100-year-old barnwood. Once open, the bakery will have the capacity for an increased selection of baked goods and special-order cakes, more coffee and tea offerings and, in a first for Devil’s Food, wifi service. The new seating area will also be used for special chef’s dinners in the evening, since the bakery itself will close at 6 p.m.
An exact date has not been set for the bakery’s opening, but Oakley says it’s just a matter of waiting for final inspections from the city. And with a backlog of new restaurants waiting their turn in Denver, that could be a matter of two or three weeks or another month or two — a bedeviling situation for a team that’s ready to go.
